AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Get him with an uppercut under his jaw,” said someone with a deep voice. “While he’s distracted, knee him in the nuts. That’ll hurt him.”
I spun around to see who it was.
Chris Hammond winked at me. “It’ll work every time.”
“But I don’t want to kick my brother in the…” I couldn’t even finish the thought. That was just plain wrong. It was on par with thinking about Cam and Sara’s sex life. It belonged squarely in the do-not-go-there department.
“That much is clear enough.” He came in closer, letting the door swing closed behind him. “Right now, he’s not your brother. He’s the son of a bitch who’s trying to attack you. So you distract him with an uppercut, knee him in the nuts, and then you escape.”
“But…”
“Here.” He reached for the hand targets Cam had been using and put them on himself once my brother relinquished them. “Do it to me instead.”
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“You can,” Cam said. “If you hurt him, Hammer and I can sort it out later.” He waited a moment, then crossed his arms. “Pretend he’s Guy.”
“But he’s not Guy.” It was a great idea, in theory. I wasn’t sure how great it was in actuality. I didn’t think I could ever do the things they wanted me to do to anyone. Maybe not even the real Guy.
“Oh, I’m not?” Hammer lunged toward me, tossing the targets away. He grabbed at my waist with one arm and put the other hand over my mouth.
My brain went straight to panic mode. I screamed for Cam to help, but my voice was smothered in Hammer’s hand. In seconds, he was dragging me across the room, no matter how much I flailed.
I kicked anything I could connect with, preferably something soft. But Cam still didn’t come to my rescue. Was this a test? Were they trying to prove something to me? Must be. My brother wouldn’t allow anyone to attack me while he was standing by and watching. I tried to calm down enough to remember what he’d told me to do. Distract him with something and then kick him in the nuts.
With the way he was holding me, I couldn’t punch him under the jaw like he’d suggested, but I could sure as hell bite his hand. So I did. Hard.
Hammer shouted and ripped his hand away from me.
As soon as possible, I twisted around and kneed him.
He released me, holding both hands to his groin as he stepped back. I collapsed to the floor, thoroughly spent and sucking in air.
But then he laughed, and he winked at me again. “See? I knew you could do it.”
Cam came over and helped me to my feet. “You okay?”
I nodded, trying to reassure him. But then I thought better of it and punched him as hard as I could in the stomach.
“Oof! What was that for?”
“Heavy-handed tactics,” I said, and Hammer only laughed harder.
“At least we know she can do it,” Hammer said, as I stalked out of the gym.
“YOU SHOULD’VE PUNCHED him in the nose,” Anthony said later, when I filled him in about everything that had happened since yesterday’s non-practice. Ellen had a family emergency to see to, so we were on our own today. Whether we’d been partners for long or not, the two of us both knew exactly what we needed to work on, so it wasn’t the end of the world for us to have a practice without our coach every now and then.
The bigger problem for the two of us was simply staying on task.
Now was a prime example of that. We should be working on our combined spins or our split twist. Instead, we were shooting the breeze. Yes, I needed to be sure he stayed abreast of the situation, but that didn’t mean we should waste our ice time.
Yet that was exactly what we were doing.
“My arms are too short,” I explained. “I can’t reach Cam’s nose to punch him there.”
He grinned at me. “Good point.” Then he skated over next to me and stretched my right arm as high as it would go.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
